Lisa Turner might be new at striking a gavel and running a meeting, but good luck finding an elected official who better reflects the community she serves.

Turner is the first black woman elected board president at San Joaquin Delta College, one of Stockton's more diverse institutions.

She was a teen mom who grew up in a neighborhood plagued by violence, like far too many Stockton kids.

And even when she escaped that neighborhood - some of her friends never did - she struggled to pay the bills while attending college classes, a familiar story for thousands at Delta.

Yes, the 52-year-old Turner has much in common with Delta students.

Not the least of which is that she is a Delta student herself, taking a full load of 12 units this spring as she seeks to finish what she started so many years ago - before life got in the way.

"I was so young then," Turner said. "I don't think I took education really serious like I do now. I didn't understand the value.

"That's what I like about being here: I have an opportunity to show people that you can overcome some of your obstacles."

Growing up in Oakland as the youngest of seven children, Turner gave birth to her son when she was 16 years old. She made it out of the neighborhood, with the support of her family, and enrolled at a community college in San Jose.

Faced with the demands of single motherhood, however, Turner eventually dropped out of college in favor of a job working the loading docks at a Silicon Valley high-tech firm.

Although she went on to a career in real estate and has been self-employed most of her life, she regrets the decision to drop out - and sees her new role as an opportunity to steer others straight.

Turner, her husband, Steve, and their three children have lived all over the country, operating a restaurant in Manteca in the 1990s and more recently a home in Stockton for people recovering from alcohol and drug addictions.

But it was service work for the poor through her church, Families Together Missionary Baptist on Clay Street, that put Turner on a new path toward Delta.

"The Word says, 'My people perish for lack of knowledge,' " she said. "I could see that education would be a great place to start, if I wanted to serve."

In 2010, her longtime friend Jennet Stebbins, who was a Delta trustee, encouraged Turner to run for a vacant seat on the board.

" 'Get out of here,' " Turner shot back, according to Stebbins.

No doubt, she was a long shot against county superintendent of schools Fredrick Wentworth and his doctoral degree in education. And perhaps it says something about Turner's expectations that she spent election night at her church attending a Sunday school meeting.

But her husband checked the results online and delivered the news: "You have the nerve to be winning," he told her.

Now, after two years on the board, Turner has been thrust into the presidency.

That's one thing during good times when multimillion-dollar public institutions such as Delta are hiring, and everyone is happy; it's another thing entirely when budgets are slashed and jobs are eliminated.

"I don't know why this had to be my time," she said, laughing. "But I'm committed to it."

She's committed to finishing her education, too, after a 30-year lull. Not because she needs a job, but because she wants to show herself - and others - that it can be done.

On Thursday afternoon, Turner walked from a sociology class straight to Delta's board room, where she shared her story.

"It's our responsibility that we make sure young people know that they can go and get a higher education, and that they are important enough to do so," she said.

And don't worry about her seat in the middle of the dais, she said. Sooner or later she'll be comfortable with that gavel.

"There's so much help around here," Turner said, "that I don't see how I could fail."